1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to control systems with a timeclock or calendar for controlling various timed events, and relates more particularly to control systems for timed events that are arranged to occur during specifically defined time periods.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known to have control systems that are arranged for controlled events based on various timed sequences. For example, heating ventilation and cooling controls (HVAC) often provide different settings based on weekday or weekend time frames. A popular control scheme permits a user to set the control to perform certain events during a weekday timeframe consisting of Monday through Friday, and further sets the control to perform certain events during a weekend timeframe consisting of Saturday and Sunday. Often, the weekday and weekend timeframes have selectable time periods such as morning, afternoon and evening that are applicable to each day defined for the timeframe.
It is often the case in residential or commercial controls that a particular control scenario is desirable for the Monday-Friday timeframe. For example, in a residential environment, a lighting control may be turned off during a late morning and an afternoon time period, and turned on during an evening and early morning time period. In the case of a commercial enterprise, for example, lighting controls may be activated during a morning, afternoon and early evening period, and deactivated during late night and early morning periods. These control scenarios are typically very different from those that are desired for weekend activities. Accordingly, while a same control is often desired for Monday through Friday, a different control is desired for Saturday and Sunday. Lighting, as well as heating systems, for example, are designed to operate at an appropriate level for use during a weekday and then switch to another level during the weekend. One example of a lighting control system that includes a timeclock is the RadioRA® lighting control system, manufactured by Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. The timeclock of the RadioRA® system is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/681,062.
The separate settings for weekdays and weekends tend to help conserve resources and extend the life of system components. For example, unnecessary lighting is turned off during periods of non-use during a weekday or weekend. The lighting is alternately set to a level consistent with the use of the space to be lighted rather than turned on or off. For example the lighting may be set to a particular dimmed level. Lighting controls in different timeframes are also desirable for a number of other purposes, such as security or aesthetics, for example.
The defined periods for typical timeframe control systems often include a weekday period that extends from midnight Sunday to midnight Friday. The weekend period is often defined as midnight Friday to midnight Sunday. Accordingly, a user setting for a weekday will operate from midnight Sunday to midnight Friday, at which point the control switches to weekend settings for Saturday and Sunday. If a weekday operation is desired for Friday that is different from that of Tuesday, for example, the control settings are manually adjusted on Friday to obtain the desired operation. Similarly, if a weekend operation is desired for Sunday that is different from that of Saturday, the control settings are manually updated. The manual updates or adjustments can often be made on a temporary basis, or may be set to a holding level, for example.
It is often the case that a different weekday setting is desired for Friday because of proximity to the weekend days. A control setting for Friday will often more closely resemble that of the weekend days in practice because of this proximity and the observation of the end of the workweek on Friday. Similarly, it is often the case that control system settings for Sunday evening more closely resemble a weekday than a weekend. A residential lighting control system, for example, may be set to have appearance or aesthetic lighting activated on Friday and Saturday nights, but deactivated the remainder of the time. Alternately, it may be desirable to activate security lighting on Friday night, deactivate the lighting early Saturday morning, reactivate the security lighting on Saturday night, and again deactivate the lighting early Sunday morning. However, as discussed above, these desired scenarios are typically only realized in a two-timeframe type control system by manually setting desired controls on Friday evening and Monday morning, for example. That is, since Friday is included in the weekday control, any changes are reflected in each weekday, Monday through Friday. Also, any changes to Sunday settings are reflected in Saturday operation because of the grouping of weekdays and weekends.
Thus the settings for Sunday evening typically are more desirable as a weekday setting, because it is less likely that the resident will be entertaining or have a need for additional lighting that would be typical of other weekend days. That is, the additional lighting that a user would typically desire for Friday and Saturday evenings is typically undesirable for Sunday evenings.
Accordingly, the control consisting of two timeframes does not reflect the practical situation for automated control application. That is, the defined weekday and weekend timeframes are typically skewed from that which is a desirable timeframe definition based on a two-timeframe control. Automated control cannot be practically realized without some manual programming or setup to overcome the skewed timeframes. However, either scenario, i.e., skewed timeframe definitions or manual intervention, is undesirable for a number of reasons including loss of efficiency, inappropriate lighting scenarios, diminished component lifetime and so forth.
Furthermore, when a weekend timeframe ends, on a Sunday evening, for example, another problem typically occurs with the two-timeframe control system. If a user sets a particular lighting scenario for Saturday evening, for example, that includes additional lighting or a specific lighting for security or aesthetic purposes, this same scenario will be in force on Sunday evening. Because Sunday and Saturday are controlled together in the two-timeframe control system, a lighting event that occurs Saturday evening will also occur Sunday evening. However the Saturday lighting event may be shut off or deactivated early Sunday morning and still be in the weekend time frame. The same is not true of the lighting event occurring on Sunday evening, since a shut off or deactivation that would normally occur early Monday morning, which is no longer in the weekend timeframe. Accordingly, lighting that is activated on Sunday evening, relying on an early morning shut off, does not typically get shut off, since Monday through Friday typically has differently programmed events than the weekend events. In this scenario, lights may be activated on Sunday evening, and stay activated all week, until the next weekend shutoff command is received, typically early on Saturday morning.
One solution to the control problem presented above involves the provision of a separate program for each day of the week. The lighting controls are adjusted as described above, except each day is set separately. With such a control, events can be set for Monday morning, for example, that handle events of the previous evening occurring during the weekend. No other weekdays would be affected by a unique setup for Monday morning in this scenario. However, the single day control setup tends to be higher in cost and more complex to manufacture, for example.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a time or calendar controlled system that provides the user with a time frame suitable for practical applications that more closely follows actual usage.